Doing your first pull-up is an awesome milestone. But how do you go about getting better at an exercise if you can’t do them in the first place?

Luckily, anyone can learn to eventually do a pull-up, just not by starting with the exercise straight away. The women at Girls Gone Strong have compiled a list of the most effective exercises to work up to your first one. Here are a few, in order of increasing difficulty:

Flexed arm hangs - They’re really what they sound like: step on a box so you’re at about the same height as the bar, and simply grab hold and hang there for as long as you can.

Pull-up negatives - Literally just the descending portion of a pull-up. Once again, jump up and grab hold of the bar so you’re in the same position as you would be if you’ve just reached the top portion of the movement. Then, as slowly as possible, start to lower yourself down. I usually find that if you can slow down the descent so it takes roughly 45 seconds, you’re ready to try a pull-up.

Neutral grip pull-ups - These are a type of where the bars you hold on to are parallel, so your palms face each other. These tend to be easier than your normal pull-up because you can engage more of your arms in the movement.

It will take a little while, but if you stick with it, you’ll eventually be able to hit your very first first pull-up.